gentle giants wrote:
That is very common when the mother has been malnourished during pregnancy. Charity was extremely malnourished when I got her, and even though she carried her litter to term, none of the litter made it past 24 hours old. It's very sad, but at least the mother is going to be ok, and hopefully the rest of the babies too.
That makes me feel better, but in a sad way. I keep trying to go over what I've done or am doing wrong.
She's alone in a 6' hutch. She has water, hay, pellets (with black oil sunflower seeds), a litter box and a litter box with her nest andbabies in it. The hutch is covered with a sheet but its up in a corner so she can see out. No other animals out there.
I came home from work around 3:00am and checked on them. She has one black baby out on the floor. Its fat and fed and was warm. Looks like she peed in the nest so I got a clean large litter box out for her. I put new shredded newspaper in the bottom, a bit of new hay and lifted the nest of babies into it. I pulled some wet hair out of the nest and then checked on the babies.
Two white ones were very thin and cool. I picked them up and put them in my shirt to warm them while I checked the rest. They are ok so I gotBambi out and flipped her over while I was siting down. One of the warmed babies nursed right away and became more steady. It didnt get as plump as the rest but did fill quite a bit. The other baby Im not so sure about. It was already stretching, chirping and almost "panting". It did nurse but was weak. (I actually fed this one first even though Im writing about it second) It plumped up as well but Im worried about it because of the odd breathing.
The three went into a dog crate while I cleaned out the hutch and then I moved the two babies into the nest and put Bambi back. She let me scratch her face a bit before she lunged and boxed at me.
They're settled in for the rest of the night. I'll check on them again after I geta few hours of sleep. I have a doctor appointment in the morning so I'm home after working half a shift. I was so afraid I'd come home to more losses - close, and I don't know if the two are out of the woods yet.
Im kind of saddened about what the morning may bring.
This is exhausting even though I dont feel like Im really doing much at all.
